Hi everyone,Not new to the forum (fantastic knowledge base and helpful members) as joined formally in 2015 when I purchased my March 2004 1.6 petrol CC. Thought I'd offer an overview of my ownership experience. Purchase pros: >One family (non smokers) owned car from new, mother then daughter.>HPI confirmed genuine 51k and all MOTs aligned with first registration month. >Reasonably presentable in metallic blue.>Interior in good condition.>Boot trim very clean.>Completely original.>Roof working fine.>No stains internally and no other evidence of roof leaks.>All engine compartment trims / covers in place. >10 months MOT remaining.>No issues highlighted from test drive.>Battery less than 1yr old.>Exhaust system in good as new condition.

Purchase cons:>Bodywork far from the best with car park dings evident but acceptable for an 11 year old car.>NSR window non operable.>Not much service history. >Tyres ok but only 3 to 4k max left in them.>Clutch bite high and like an on-off switch but no slippage.

What I did immediately after purchase:>Full service inc full cam belt and water pump kit, oil/air filter, coolant flush and replenish, precautionary de-phaser pulley replacement.>NSR window fix turned out to be cable and pulley replacement.

What has it cost:I keep a log and doing all work myself (occasional help from mechanic friend) for all the above inc original purchase price its £2,088.00 to date.

These cars get a lot of bad press and perhaps (so far) I've been lucky but they are in my opinion great. If you are careful when you buy, willing and capable to do stuff yourself, its cheap, very comfortable and large boot practical open air motoring. Just don't expect a sports car.

Hope this offers a useful insight

Last edited by Malroy on Wed Nov 14, 2018 10:28 am, edited 1 time in total.

3 good tips after owning my mk2 for 7 years and 150k1) turn off auto headlamps my blew quite a few headlamp bulbs until I did this.view2) purchase some krytox from your nearest VW dealer, this is the lube they use for the eos, cost you about £32 for a small bottle but well worth it.... It lubes and plumps up seals. Used sparingly it lasts for years, used once in spring and again in autumn on all roof seals process is simple open roof half way use finger to spread on middle roof seal then drop into boot and do windscreen seal and boot seal i closed boot after but leave roof off for about 2 hours for seal to absorb and plump up. I never had any leaks,squeaks or bangs (when 1st purchased it dripped on passenger front this stopped it dead)3) handbrake.. Real pain to keep working. go on eBay search scenic rear caliper springs. Cost about £8 for the pair simple to fit and blatantly obvious as to where, remove wheel, stretch on spring it attaches to handbrake lever and caliper, do both sides then slacked off h/brake in car and go through the adjustment ritual after this you should have no problems with rear brake adjustment, it works by the h/brake lever u see, that calipe r leader has to come fully back to the stop to activate auto adjustment, when they get a bit old the cables stop the lever going fully back, the spring helps pull the lever to the stop.In case it's not clear you only need a pair (2springs) one each side.Incidentally i now have a mk3 cc which also has no caller springs needless to say 1st job was to fit them.Wonder why they only fitted them to secnics? I promise you they will work a treat.

Well the differance!!!!!! Same engine as my mk2 1.9dciPlus!Its pick up is a lot quicker, pulls out of junctions much faster.Better hand brake the airplane throttle type changed to a normal one.Bulbs on front end easy to change no bumper removalBetter side window to roof seals instead of the mk2 P shape seal they are U shapedOne touch side windows up and down.When roof comes off side windows only drop about 2 inches instead of all the wayI feel the engine is a bit quieter.NEGATIVE:Fuel economy is lower and top end speed is lower and quite noisy all its grunt is low down now my mk2 would happily run at 70mph at 2k on rev counter this mk3 @70 is closer to 3k.The roof is no where near as good as the karman one duel rams and nicely balanced mine is a single ram in the middle and a huge bar to lift roof my old mk2 2004and 15k still slipped that roof into boot nice n smooth this mk3 chucks it in complete with bounce in rear shocks.The boot OMG what a cheap idea.... What where you thinking!!!!!! It's about the same size as yours apart from it hasn't got the drop in it where the wheel well is (great for suitcases) and that stupid plastic parcel shelf in one piece right across the middle of the boot makes it almost useless, old meg 2 large suitcase plus two cabin bags with ease, new meg 1 suitcase 2 cabin bags jammed in other suitcase back seat in the summer picknic basket in boot in wheel well with roof off "smashing" new meg it's on back seat won't fit in boot with roof off as there is no well Servicing , well air filter simple same as yours, fuel filter is a canister instead of paper same place as yours but you pop off wheel arch liner simple oil filter what a pig you get to it from underneath, they even give you a cut out in the subframe.. Oh cheers, only problem once you unscrew it you soon realise it doesn't fit past the coolant pipes so pours warm oil down your arms and all over your drive whilst you fight with it hmmmm and pollen well what idiot designs a car where you have to remove the clutch pedal and push it to one side to change this filter WTF it's in the same place as yours but now it's won't come out apparently you have to be careful otherwise the plastic clutch fluid pipes leak what a stupid idea!.I don't think it sold as well as the mk2 here in North Wales you can count them on one hand it took me almost a year to find a half decent one yet mk2 s are everywhere, don't get me wrong it's a nice car a stiffer ride and better seats but I have a feeling my roof won't be as trouble free and the boot thing is just rediculas i am glad I got it as it is the next step but it's interesting to note there is no mk4 CC yet and looking at the amount of mk3 on the road compared to mk2 i don't think they will make one even abroad you hardly see them it's more mk2s than 3sI had this one for just over a year it's behaving at the moment so we will see, the mk2 I had for 7 years.

Hi ChrisM,Thanks for the insight into the MkIII, really very good indeed and I'm sure helpful to anyone considering the change. Strange how Renault have changed the final drive to give higher revs in top gear. Could it be to ensure the DPF is purged, perhaps someone out there knows? Having said that my wife's car is a MkIII Scenic 1.5dci (fantastic engine by the way) that's taken us throughout France, Spain and Portugal. At 110 - 120 km European Autoroute speeds I'm sure it sits at circa 2100 rpm. It's a great car to drive and a real mile muncher, but when using it, I do miss the simplicity of the Meg II dash, especially the heater controls. I find the MkIII HVAC control buttons distracting to use when driving.

Like you I believe the Karmann roof mechanism to have the smoothest operation. I also run an e93 BMW and the roof on that operates with clunks and shudders (just as its suspension did until I got rid of the horrid run-flat tyres) not in the smooth damped manner of the Meg II.

Probably right about egr, I found my mk2 easy to clog up and a good low geared blast produced quite a black cloud the mk2 was also quite renowned for turbo lag, I had my mk2 mapped and it took a bit of lag out but still a massive pain.The mk3 hasn't got that "I'm not going" feel it's away very quickly, the one thing we have noticed although it is roughly the same length as the mk2 it doesn't fit in a 2 poster ramp very well if you get the front arms on jacking points the rear arms don't fit in the rear Jack point's, all very strange.Do agree with the heating system it's not as easy to use as the mk2 you have to keep looking at it to hit the right button. The other thing which is a complete waste of time is the Av/usb slot it sit bottom of dash in centre consul, super it has a flap on it so it looks nice and tidy, mine has the ashtray in it (great for coin storage) it sits in front of gearshift there is no other place for it to fit no worries apart from one very small problem........ With the ashtray in place you can't open the flap to use the ports so all in all pretty useless but I suppose it's the thought that counts.